Rahm Emanuel Mayor. Rahm Emanuel has two legal issues looming large for Supreme Court. He wants to stop election officials from printing ballots without his name and to persuade the state's highest court to restore his candidacy.

Rahm Emanuel faces a double-barreled legal problem just days before voting begins in the Chicago mayoral race — stopping election officials from printing ballots without his name and persuading the state's highest court to restore his candidacy.

Hours after an Appellate Court decision removed him from the Feb. 22 election, lawyers for Emanuel late Monday asked the Illinois Supreme Court to stay that ruling while they prepare an appeal to make the case that Chicagoans should have a chance to vote for the former White House chief of staff.

Though the issue of whether Emanuel properly met a one-year residency requirement to run for mayor was always destined to come before the high court, he now goes to that seven-member forum in a weakened posture, carrying the weight of trying to prove the Appellate Court wrong. Traditionally, the state's highest court has shied away from local candidacy and residency election issues.